One Month Update

I cannot believe that it has already been a month since I left the United States. It has been a great month, filled with new experiences, challenges and at times even frustrations. The most common question that I am getting from people back home is have you found a home, a place to feel comfortable in Beijing and the answer is a resounding yes. I love it here. I wish I was a lot closer into the city than I am. It makes it very difficult to go into Beijing knowing it takes two hours each way, but I suppose it does help me save money.

I have come to appreciate Beijing for what it is. It is not the cosmopolitan city that Shanghai, New York and London are, instead it is the head of government, the place where decisions are made which I feel lends itself to helping preserve the foreign aspects of a city (for outsiders). Said another way, because this city is the face of China to the world, it goes out of its way to minimize the impact that foreigners have had on it, preserving the local flavor and culture. That is not to say that there are not numerous examples of Western influence, it is just not as in your face as it is in Shanghai. Every time I make my way into Beijing I experience another slice of authentic Chinese culture while at the same time finding out where to go for the Western, back home experience. I have come to love the balance between these two very different faces of the city.

In the process of falling in love with Beijing an interesting gastronomic development has occurred. I now find myself craving certain Chinese dishes far more than I crave anything in particular from back home. That is not to say that I do not miss the food from home, it is just that I have a generic Western food craving, anything could satiate the Western food desire but I tend to crave specific Chinese dishes. The major things in China that I have come to love are Jiaozi (Chinese steamed dumpling), grilled mutton skewers from Xinjiang (the Muslim province in China), Bolou Fan (fried pineapple rice) and Dai food in general (Chinese Minority group from Yunnan province, similar to Thai food). I could eat pretty much unlimited quantities of all of these items and often do. In addition to being tasty, they are also very cheap, especially compared to Western food. I have to admit that I did not see this coming. I still do not enjoy the food in the cafeteria, but when I get to go out to Chinese restaurants, especially holes-in-the-wall and street vendors, I have found myself in culinary heaven.

Another development over the last month is that I have come to think of Beijing as home, or rather a home where I pretty much know no-one, do not speak the language and technically do not even have residence in, but my home nonetheless. I am at the point where I am getting a little cocky. I suppose I will have to be brought down a notch or two, but until that happens I will continue to walk around with a swagger whenever I see other Western people. I especially get out of hand near tourist sites (yes, even when I am visiting said tourist sites). I look down on other tourists and think to myself, GET OUT OF MY CITY! I then remind myself that I have absolutely no right to do this, that in many cases the people that I am thinking this about may even have been in China longer than I have and in many cases have just as much command of Mandarin as I do, if not more. This is something that I need to work on, but in the meantime, it feels good to be at home here. As a side note to this, I feel that my Mandarin is coming along nicely. I have started to pick up basic phrases and with practice can tell a cab where to go, order in a restaurant, bargain (I know all of my numbers now) and generally do tourist things. These are all accomplished with very bad pronunciation, but my point seems to get across. I have found that the Chinese people are very accommodating and forgiving when it comes to their language. They are quick to complement any attempts at Mandarin and will assist with pronunciation and do their best to understand my meaning. It is refreshing compared to my other experience with using my minimal knowledge of French in Paris where they will not even pretend to understand even when the speak English.